Possible pepper spray incident happened at downtown Earls, police say

No injuries or treatment required by EMS

Police are at Bankers Hall in downtown Calgary to investigate a possible pepper spray incident near Earls restaurant.

Police, fire and EMS crews responded shortly after 3 p.m. MT Saturday after several reports of a substance in the air causing irritation and burning to eyes and throats. No injuries were reported and EMS has now left the scene but Calgary police officers are continuing their investigation into what happened.

According to police, the incident took place around the Earls restaurant in Bankers Hall. It's believed someone sprayed pepper spray and shortly after, people were forced out of the restaurant as well as parts of the adjacent Plus 15 and Bankers Hall entrance.

The Calgary Eyeopener's food columnist, Julie Van Rosendaal, was at Bankers Hall and said she and her family could feel something in the air that wasn't right.

"My husband and eight-year-old and I were coming up to the doors and you could just tell there was something in the air — it was kind of burning," she said. "My mouth started burning and my friend and husband started coughing. I realized there was something in the air so we just ran out the door and someone out there said he had seen kids in there spraying what looking like bear spray. People were coming out behind us doing the same thing ... and then when we went over to Bankers Hall, people were coming down the escalator doing the same thing."

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